Learning to deal with hate speech: An online collective intelligence experiment on the Collective Learning platform

Abstract Background: Online hate speech on social networks and the Internet is an increasingly pervasive phenomenon to which both children and adolescents are exposed. Objective: Our study’s main objective was to ascertain whether collective intelligence can improve their handling of hate speech. Methods: We conducted the study on the Collective Learning platform, comparing results between three groups of Spanish adolescents aged 15–16 years. The groups were of different sizes: one large group (G1, n = 123) and two smaller groups (G2, n = 18; G3, n = 23). Results: The experiment showed that the conditions for the emergence of collective intelligence were met within the large group (G1) but not in the two small groups (G2 and G3). The large group, as a collective, acquired capacities to deal with hate speech; however, this did not occur in the two smaller groups. Conclusions: Our study explains how the emergence of collective intelligence in online environments helps group members acquire a series of competencies. In particular, collective intelligence can help adolescents learn to deal with hate speech.